ninme

The Times - We must rebuild a military base in the US
As the Iraq operation winds down, an inquiry into the lessons of a botched campaign is essential, by Allan Mallinson (a military historian, novelist and former cavalry officer)

Why were our tactics - military and civil - so inadequate and so out of synch with the Americans at the outset of the insurgency? And why, when the US changed approach with the Petraeus troop “surge”, were we so hamstrung? During Operation Charge of the Knights, the US-Iraqi offensive against Basra militias last May, we were mere spectators. In Parliament, Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, dismissed that embarrassment, saying: “Iraqi security forces, supported by UK Forces and coalition partners… have been successful.” As Professor Joad of the Brains Trust would have said, it depends on what you mean by “supported”. …

The level at which we have really failed however, is “military-strategic”, where guidance is formulated for campaign planners. Strategy is not decided behind closed doors in the Oval Office. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the President’s principal military adviser as well as the Defence Secretary’s, although responsibility for the execution of campaigns falls on combatant commanders. We have no heavyweight liaison at this level, yet it is here that we might have the greatest leverage because strategy is the application of the entire resources of the nation, not least the intellectual (and we do still have - as the Americans call it - impressive “operational heritage”). Few in America would argue that the “war against terror” can be conducted without allies; few could think there is any more capable ally than Britain.

There is a model for co-operation at this level. In Arlington National Cemetery is a statue (equestrian, as befits a field marshal) of Sir John Dill, the former Chief of the Imperial General Staff who, from 1941 until his death in November 1944 was the permanent British representative to the Combined (Anglo-US) Chiefs of Staff Committee that steered Roosevelt and Churchill’s military strategy. Roosevelt called Dill “the most important figure in the remarkable accord which has been developed in the combined operations of our two countries”.

With both John McCain and Barack Obama indicating a willingness for greater co-operation, the sooner we reconstitute that committee, with a representative of Dill’s stature, the sooner we regain some control of defence planning.

A Trojan Horse!